SOS announce NAS training opportunity...

Save Ontario Shipwrecks have just announced a great leap forward in the business of underwater archaeological training in the Province. In a landmark deal with the Nautical Archaeology Society, they have gained permission to run courses under NAS auspices in Ontario. This is a really welcome development. Resources for training have been significantly lacking in recent years, despite the best efforts of government agencies at all levels and interested avocational groups like SOS and POW. The news release announcing the development can be downloaded by clicking here.

One musketeer, two musketeers.. but where is number three ?...

Shelving our plans to go cut a hole in the ice at the Brule Road Quarry because of our 3rd Musketeer going MIA under unforeseeable circumstances, Mike and I decided to brave the pounding surf and ice for a dive off of the Psych Hospital dock. As you can see in the picture, the entry point was massively crowded with ice shards being blown into shore by a South-West wind. Ducking our heads under the pounding surface, we could hear a loud cacophony of ice pieces churning in the waves.. A gentle swim out to the stop sign produced an encounter with a Long-Nosed Gar, a rare sightings in our Kingston waters. The long-snouted fish allowed me to creep up close to him to get a couple of shots. He then gracefully swam away, aiming towards the surface. A couple more pics at the stop sign, and it was time to turn around. Returning to shore, and to our amazement, most of the ice had drifted away from our exit point but not without leaving a large cloud of silt in it's wake around the pier. Visibility for most of the dive was about 40 feet, with the water temperature dipping below 34 deg F. Total dive time, 30 minutes.

Another day, another dive...

So, another year, another dive under the weightbelt...

Today was a little special. It marked my first thousand dives since certification. It was an elegant coincidence to have it fall on New Year's Day and I'm very grateful to those who shared the waters of Lake Ontario with me on a very cold, if pleasantly sunny day. The venue wasn't really important, but for the record, we visited the wreck off Murney Tower.

Special thanks are due to my buddy, Dianne, who not only braved the frigid waters once again, but also provided a wonderful cake and some mulled wine with which to celebrate the occasion.

Surf's Up...

When you have your heart set on a dive sometimes it just doesn't matter what the weather's doing. Jim had a yen to dive the KGH wreck this morning, so despite heavy seas and a really strong wind, off we went. As we'd expected, besides driving a very gentle current along, conditions below the surface, after yet another surf entry, were surprisingly good. It was a more than worthwhile trip, because the line was getting quite dirty, and right out on the last 100' or so, it was actually silted over, which might have confused a diver unfamiliar with the site.

Visibility, while only about 20' in the shallows, improved significantly to something like 40-50' at the wreck. The water seemed warmer than of late at about 36℉ (2℃). Several large, lazy Bass were present amongst the timbers of the wreck - and they seemed curious about their visitors - or perhaps just hungry.

Our exit was quite exciting. A squall was passing through just as we arrived back on shore. It's distinctly different to be bodysurfed about 6' at a time as you approach your exit, which was conducted on hands and knees..! Ah, the joys of Winter diving.

Because it's there....

What do you say when people ask you, slightly incredulously, why on Earth are you diving at this time of year? Well, the answer quite simply is, because we can. A passerby suggested this morning that it's just a matter of 'getting wet'; and they were quite right. Some of us just enjoy the challenge of Winter diving. There's also the possibility of enjoying a unique encounter. Not that we did today, but that's irrelevant. Coping with surf entries and exits is enjoyable in itself. Most people have heard the old saw, "Train Hard, Fight Easy'. Well, in a diving context, 'practice regularly to dive safely' might be substituted. The statistics are very clear. The majority of incidents involve divers who don't have the opportunity to practice regularly.

My enjoyment is only slightly eroded by a persistent - and so far untraceable - leak in my drysuit. It's not enough to force me out of the water while it benefits from professional inspection and repair by the manufacturer, but it's certainly irritating. A fact which my dive buddies, who hear me grumble about it, will readily attest to. Oh well, I think I'll make it a New Year's resolution to send it away and address the problem. But how will I survive in its absence?

I should record my appreciation of the sacrifice others are making to be my dive buddies while I satisfy my strange obsession... I really do feel very grateful to them.

Cracking good dive...!

There's a brief time of year between ice free and frozen when the Lake can be entered with a minimum of effort by cracking light icing at the margins. Today was one of those rare days. With a brisk wind piling drift ice up on the breakwaters and making shore entry challenging, the decision was made to enter at KGH and swim out into the Lake. There were no great issues and navigation proved reasonably easy; the area around the outer breakwater is quite familiar. Visibility wasn't great, probably about 20 feet at best, but the dive was worthwhile.


Besides the car that lies south of the wall, a bicycle was found and a shoal of Lake Shad spotted close to the rocks. The water temperature was as close to freezing as it gets before it gets a little firmer.

Christmas visit to the Stacked Hulls...

When you've been busy with the Pumphouse Project and the water's likely to be pretty churned up, where do you go? Well, the answer today, bearing in mind possible access issues with snowy, slippery shore conditions, was to hit the Stacked Hulls.

Despite a heavy swell, courtesy of a brisk westerly wind, and visibility somewhere around 15-20', the swim was fun. The line remains intact and we cleaned it up a bit. The yellow colour really shows up well against the bottom, when it's not slimy and dirty..

Forty minutes out to the wrecks and back, in water just above freezing makes for a great Christmas afternoon treat. Let's hope that the Club's forthcoming New Year's Day dive will enjoy such excellent topsides weather.

The Virgin Blogger...

After being in the Kingston area for more than a year, and after multiple invites from Mike, this is my first post on the Club Blog. I finally ran out of excuses, and have decided to stop procrastinating.... so here we go... and please, be gentle....

I just got back from a week of diving in Cuba, more precisely, Playa Pesquero in the Guardalavaca region. This was not my first time in this area, visiting the same resort back in 2005. I was able to get about 10 dives in during my stay there... as well as take some pretty interesting pictures of local sea life. Unfortunately because of the weather, we were unable to dive with very large groupers, which was the reason for my trip there. Cuba has been having very tumultuous weather lately, with a few hurricanes passing by the Holguin region. The resorts, local crops, and coral reefs have suffered severe damage from Hurricane Ike in November. One of our tour bus drivers paid 23 pesos for 5 lbs of sweet potatoes. $1.41 CAD for each CUC pesos. Bear in mind that the average Cuban salary is less than that per month....

Here is a pic of a lionfish, which we saw are quite the common site on most of our dives there. Giant crabs were usually found on most coral reef walls, mostly hidden in crevises.. A couple of Moray Eels, Puffer Fishes, and sea cucumbers made up the seascape as well. Our dives consisted of a deep dive at 9 A.M., max depth most mornings at about 115 ft @ 78 deg F. The next dive of the morning would be at about 80 ft after at least an hour of surface interval.

One piece of advice if you are contemplating a dive vacation to Cuba. If you can bring your own gear, DO IT. All rental gear usually available in Cuba belongs to the government. The gear seldom gets serviced, or gets serviced once there is a major failure. Tanks have no yearly viz done, and I could not see any hydrostat stamps on any of the tanks. The inside of my first stage is now coated with rusty dust particles, probably caused by the dive shop's compressor failure which happened the week prior to me arriving there. I would hate to see what the inside of their rental regulators look like.

Gotta go.. Have to finish warming up with some Cuban Rum , after my immersion today with Mike and Dianne on the Steam Museum Barge. Dive time 31 minutes, water temp 34 deg F... A bit colder than Cuba's 78 degrees last Saturday....

Diving's snow problem for us...

They said we were crazy - and they may well have been correct. Diving in a snowstorm, when the air temperature's down to -13℃ (9℉) is probably pushing the dive envelope, but when there's work to be done, why not? Adam, Jim and I braved the entry challenges (and more particularly, the exit ones) to get more data on the Pump House Pipeline today. Adam again 'scootered' out to the distant crib and took some more details of the pipeline structure and fittings; Jim and I concentrated on obtaining detailed measurements of one of the conical (perhaps better described as bell-shaped) connections.

Visibility was excellent - probably about 50'. The first few, snow-chilled feet of water were very close to the freezing point, but below that layer, the water remains a 'comfortable' 37℉ (4℃). Going back to exit challenges, consider this... Adam had to re-immerse himself briefly to create the conditions to unzip his drysuit. Everything wet froze almost instantly in the wind and low temperature land side. Jim was obliged to drive home in his suit, having failed to get out its frigid confines....

Happy Birthday, Adam !

With a birthday in late December, you're not always guaranteed the conditions for a dive that satisfies; well not in Kingston, anyway. But today, Adam, Jim and I had a great dive in near perfect conditions. Adam, rigged for solo diving, took his scooter out all the way to the end of the Pump House Pipeline - some 2,400'. Jim and I swam out together to the first crib (about 1350') - counting the pipeline joints along the way. For both parties, it was an interesting experience testing our line of approach by probing for a pipeline some 6-8" down in the mud after a certain point. But it was all very worthwhile. Our understanding - and the feedback we're able to give the historians and engineers chronicling Kingston's early freshwater delivery system - is growing all the time.

For the records - air temperature today -2℃ (28℉) and the water temperature 37℉ (3℃). Visibility, as the water settles after recent storms, about 40' and improving.